Introducing New Clickable Carousel Ads on Instagram

Big step for online marketing today! For the first time ever, Instagram is offering users the ability to include live links in posts, part of a new carousel-based ad unit that the company is rolling out today. The ad format would allow users to swipe left to view multiple images within the mobile app.

In Instagram’s official blog post announcement, it described this new marketing tool as, “multi-page print campaigns to mobile phones, with an added benefit of taking people to the website to learn more.”

“For instance, a fashion company could use the carousel to deconstruct the individual products in a, ‘look’. A car company might share an array of different features of a vehicle and provide a link to learn more about the new model.”

This will prove to be a huge opportunity for marketers. Currently, a huge drawback for promoting products and services on Instagram is the inability to include links within posts. For this reason, Instagram has always been considered as a tool for marketers to build brand awareness, rather than drive traffic to a website. Many businesses have found a way around the issue by adding a URL in the profile information, the only place on the site that can include live links.

It’s a huge relief now that the feature is finally rolling out. Marketers can expect carousel ads to roll out in the next few weeks on a limited basis. As the blog post explains, “You may see carousel ads and might notice variations of the format as we learn what people are most interested in and what works best.”

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